He is a singer-songwriter, musician and actor born Michael Hubert Bourne in Northampton, England. His mother was a singer and pianist and his grandfather was a baritone singer who had been in the Rhodesian Mounted Police.
After attending school until he was 15 he entered into a 6-year apprenticeship as a compositor in the publishing industry. At the same time he formed a skiffle band called The Rebels with three of his friends and would occasionally perform a gig in the Community Hall where they rehearsed in the boiler room. He then moved on to join Kenny Lord & The Statesmen and with them he made his first demo recording.
Entering into professional music he worked with the producer Joe Meek who had said he had ideas to “make Mike the British Buddy Holly” and he worked the groups The Outlaws and The Innocents. During this time he appeared at The Cavern Club and met up with The Beatles who were still relative unknowns. During his week’s residency there Paul McCartney gave him a lift back to his hotel and Brian Epstein invited him to his flat to listen to a Beatles tape to see if he had any pointers about getting them a television appearance.
Later in his career he would have several European hits including “Don’t Be Cruel” in The Netherlands, and tour with The Beatles as well as The Rolling Stones, Brenda Lee, The Four Seasons and Bobby Vee & The Crickets. He had three hits in the 1960s with the most successful being “Tribute to Buddy Holly”, which was approved in a letter from Buddy Holly’s family and also by his fan club.
He turned to acting in the 1970s and after appearing as a character in the children’s series Worzel Gummidge, he became Mr Spooner in the hugely popular British comedy series Are You Being Served? from 1980 to 1985. Also in 1980 he achieved further chart success with his cover of “The Sunshine Of Your Smile” and in 1985 his “Everyone’s a Wally” was included in the computer game of that name.
Continuing to act and sing alongside each other he has released the album About Time Two which he recorded with The Crickets in Nashville, Tennessee, has done a variety of theatre work and has appeared in the 1999 movie Julie and the Cadillacs.
He has his own recording studio called Bulletproof Recording Studios.
Mike Berry recordings
Don’t Be Cruel (Otis Blackwell/Elvis Presley )
Here he is performing “The Sunshine Of Your Smile”….
Sources:
- http://www.angeltowns2.net/mikeberry/biography.html
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Berry
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0077634/